1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dollies and lifting components for store shelves conventionally known as gondolas. More particularly, it relates to dollies employed in the moving of large storage and display structures such as retail store display cases. Such display shelves and cases include retail store gondolas, file cabinets, shelving, and other such storage and display components which employ a system of legs for support on a floor surface.
2. Prior Art
Storage and display shelving and cases are an everyday fact of life in a modern society. Because floor space in most retail stores, storage warehouses, and office buildings is at such a premium, the display and storage of merchandise, the storage of files and records, along with storage of an infinite number of other items, has progressed upward. In order to conserve floor space in retail and commercial situations and to provide better viewing and access to products, shelving is commonly employed to hold products. In a retail setting such shelving is generally arranged to form aisles for customers to traverse through adjacent shelve structures. In a commercial or warehouse setting, a similar aisle configuration is conventionally employed. The shelves in this configuration give the customers and users a much better view of the products being stored. Further, holding capacity of the products in a finite floor space is greatly increased by vertical stacking above a small footprint on the floor.
In warehouses where goods and products are stored for distribution or shipping, shelving is also employed to increase the storage capacity in the given floor space and to organize the inventory. Offices also use shelving to hold records and to display goods as well as employing leg-supported file cabinets to organize and hold volumes of files.
All such shelving and cabinets, whether in retail stores, warehouses, or offices, must be structurally able to support the load intended. This structural support, being generally metal, makes the shelving heavy. A vexing problem of such shelving, by nature of its need to support a load, is the elevated weight rendering the shelves ungainly. This is especially true when such shelving is loaded with heavy products for sale such as canned goods in a supermarket. The elevated inventory can increase the total weight of the shelf supporting it to a multiple many times that of the shelf itself.
A variety of jacks and dollies have been introduced in the past, most of which pertain to the lifting of such cabinets which employ vertical support legs with an adjustable leveling foot extending from a bottom end and employed to level the shelves. However, most conventional products used for the purpose fail to provide a unified system of components, to lift, move, and subsequently re-place the shelf in position. Instead, conventional systems employ various jacks, forklifts and such for the purpose. This results in much time wasted and often damaged shelving from the ill-designed devices employed.
This is especially true when the moving of shelves is required during the remodeling or renovation of retail stores such as grocery stores, drug stores and the like. During such a remodeling process, it is often necessary to move large display cases, conventionally known as gondolas, which hold everything from tooth paste to canned soup. Moving them generally requires repositioning the shelves or gondolas from one part of the store to another. Often during a store remodeling process, the shelves will need to be moved multiple times to allow for various phases of construction and repositioning of merchandise to new locations.
As noted, such display cases or gondolas are large, heavy, and have extending shelves which hold and display a very large number of small products for sale increasing the shelving weight. The placement of heavy products in an elevated position from the floor also makes the shelves ungainly and predisposed to tip if raised too far from the support surface when elevated with products remaining on the shelves. However, with the cost of labor and time involved in relocating the shelves, and/or the products in conjunction therewith, removing and replacing the products each time the display case is to be relocated would be especially expensive. The need to remove and replace potentially thousands of individual products supported on the shelves, can also play havoc with the short time schedules allotted for the remodeling process to minimize lost sales. As such, device and system providing a means for moving display cases and other heavy storage devices while fully loaded with products or other stored items is highly desirable.
In some instances shorter and smaller loaded display cases might be relocated with any suitable lifting apparatus, such as conventional fork lifts or floor jacks which place them on conventional flat surfaced dollies for transport. However, such means for movement is fraught with potential for damage to the cases themselves and the products thereon.
Additionally, most display cases such as those in grocery store aisles are very long and not suited for this type of movement. Further, as is conventional in retail sales establishments such as supermarkets, the display cases are connected together in long sets, and placed parallel to each other with gaps to form the aisles in the store. Lifting a fifty foot long display case with a floor jack for positioning on a dolly would cause severe damage to such elongated structures. Consequently, transport by floor jack or flat dollies is not an option for conventional elongated display cases which are also known as gondolas.
Further, because storage and display properties of such display cases generally yield shelves very close to opposing shelves on the same display aisle, frequently there is insufficient space in the aisle formed between adjacent display cases for entry of a fork lift or large flat surfaced dolly.
Consequently in supermarkets and retail stores employing long gondolas on formed aisles to display products, the employment of one or more forklifts is simply not physically possible in the cramped confines of the store.
Additionally, while small dollies have been manufactured to engage with portions of the underlying support structure of the shelves, the ever-widening variety and construction of such support structures has made it hard to employ small dollies which will accommodate the width and legs of different types of supports.
As such, there is a continuing unmet need for an improved device and system of inter-working components and a method that provides for easy, quick, and safe movement of large heavily loaded display cases and gondolas. Such a system should be easily adapted to the job at hand and type of shelving and supports involved. Still further, such a system should be safe to use for workers and should curtail accidents by preventing tipping of the heavy shelves when lifted.